


solstice

by guttersvoice



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-04 22:34:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11564709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guttersvoice/pseuds/guttersvoice
Summary: after he picks his name, jack picks himself a birthday





	solstice

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this on MY birthday which was a few days before the actual summer solstice but then never posted it ?? until now

Jack picks his own birthday when he's probably about seven - Satellite kids only have guesswork ages if they were born too close to Zero Reverse, but they’re pretty sure Jack’s seven, by this point.

He decides it in the middle of summer, when the sun burns hot and high in the sky as long as possible; when the metal in the junkyards is too hot to touch during the day, so everyone stays indoors and sweats instead of burning their noses and shoulders pink playing and scavenging and living, and Martha does her best to make sure that everyone gets enough water.

Jack marches into her room at the crack of dawn in the height of this miserable time, and announces that it's his birthday.

There's no cake, but for a few hours the impromptu celebration distracts all of the kids in the House, and afterwards everyone is so worn out that no one spends the night tossing and turning, still awake in the dreadful heat.

It's just one day, but it's enough.

 

Team Satisfaction marks Jack's birthday by marking off another segment of the rapidly blackening map.

He pretends he doesn't notice Yusei and Crow nudging and whispering. There’s no lie in his overwhelmed happiness when they sit him down and squeeze onto the sofa either side of him to present his extravagant birthday meal, though.

There’s meat, and fruit, and all four of them get to try a bit of everything. He doesn't ask where they got it all.

They take the leftovers to Martha's, and the kids are so excited that she doesn't even try to scold them for their recent activities.

 

Jack wakes up for only a few hours on his next birthday, when the sun glares through the hole in the theatre roof and threatens to burn the delicate skin of his high, regal cheekbones.

He spends the time pacing around between the rows of seats, and throwing things, and screaming, before the patch of light passes and he can return to his former position, curled up on his throne.

 

The King receives a slew of fanmail for his birthday, none of which he is required to read. He thinks he'll try to read them all, to honour those that recognise him, but he manages three before he realises that they're all the same, and that none of them know him or ever could. Mikage is given the job of going through them to find any contained Duel Monsters cards, but he doubts that any he is gifted will be worthy of his deck, and he’s right, of course.

In the evening, Godwin leads him to a room full of people born into luxury and dripping with silks and jewels, and sweet, subtle background music, and a table laden with food so rich Jack knows at a look will make him as sick as his first week eating City food. He makes stilted, haughty conversation with people whose names he doesn't know, and who don't introduce themselves because he should know all of the important people in Neo Domino now. He knows he is being rude. He drinks more champagne than he wants to.

Two children - probably the children of someone terribly important - dart in and out of a hiding place in the folds of a curtain between two pillars.

Jack wishes he could join them.

 

Jack is woken up by a loud noise like an engine backfiring (or worse, an explosion - or worse, something come to hurt them and their city and their game - or worse, or worse -) and sits straight up in bed, fully alert.

The confetti and streamers from the party popper land in his hair.

"Happy birthday, Jack!" Team 5Ds chorus.

Something stings in the corners of his eyes even as his mouth rebels against him and curls open into a grin.

Rua and Ruka hold out a cake emblazoned with his name and the wobbliest depiction of the Crimson Dragon he's ever seen. Their own handiwork, clearly, and he's never been so pleased to see such dreadful art. He's never had a birthday cake before, he thinks, and definitely doesn’t cry, not even when everyone throws themselves at him all at once for a hug (a kiss is pressed to his cheek, but in that mess of tangled limbs he doesn't know who from, and doesn't dare ask). Doesn’t cry when breakfast is cup ramen and overpriced coffee, either, or when Carly shows up with an enormous collage of photos and articles about him and the team to hang on the wall - or when Yusei immediately pins it up in the workshop instead of assuming it was for Jack's room.

Maybe, maybe, he allows himself to later, just a little, as they break speed limits across the city, dueling for fun, not to save the world or their own skins or out of hatred or misery. With the helmet no one can tell anyway.


End file.
